


The Ocean's Embrace

by Delightful_Devin



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: F/M, bulma has to comfort him, oh this is after the buu saga, vegeta has nightmares, vegeta's having nightmares about being majin, yeah that's basically it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-16 19:30:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14817500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delightful_Devin/pseuds/Delightful_Devin
Summary: He could have destroyed his family at the stadium that day. He could have killed his wife and son and his little princess would never have been born. He could have changed his life and done so much worse. Did someone--something--as dangerous as him deserve to have a family?





	The Ocean's Embrace

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't my first fanfiction, but it's the first one I've ever made public, so yay! Milestone! Enjoy!

His eyes shot open and he sat up, his breathing ragged and sweat streaming down the sides of his face. He dared not close his eyes, for he knew that that horrible nightmare would be right there waiting for him. It was so vivid and the thought of it made him want to throw up. He looked to his side and saw his blue-haired wife sleeping beside him. She looked just like the corpse in his nightmare, only she was still breathing and she didn't have the bruises on her throat. The bruises caused by his own hand as he choked her to death. He shuddered at the thought of taking his wife's life with his own hands.

He was a monster. He always had been. What was it that attracted her to him anyway? After all that he did, how could she have known that he could change? That he _would_ change? Despite how annoying she was, she somehow became the most important person in his life. He built his family with her--she gave him a powerful warrior son and a beautiful little princess--they were the world to him. But after all the pain he caused, did he really deserve them? Did he really deserve the world?

These recurring nightmares...They weren't just an amalgamation of thoughts compiled by his brain. They were what could have been. He could have destroyed his family at the stadium that day. He could have killed his wife and son and his little princess would never have been born. He could have changed his life and done so much worse. Did someone--some _thing_ \--as dangerous as him deserve to have a family? He had been asking himself that ever since he saw his future son killed in battle, for it was at that moment that he realized how much he really cared.

In the wake of his contemplating, he felt the covers shift as his wife stirred awake. She turned and looked at him with glassy eyes. Still half asleep, she whispered his name with a hint of concern. "Ve-Vegeta...What's wrong...?" He didn't respond, lost in her eyes as if he were a sailor in an infinite ocean.

 _There's no way I deserve this,_ he thought, brushing her waves of blue hair out of her face. _I don't deserve her._ "Nothing, Bulma. Go back to sleep," he finally said in a low whisper to match hers. She shook her head and sat up with him.

"I'm not going back to sleep until I know you're okay."

"I'm fine."

"I don't believe you." She sighed and leaned her head on his shoulder. She put her hand on his bare chest over his heart and she could've sworn that she could feel his pain. Nope, there was no way she was going back to sleep now. "Please tell me." It was then that it occurred to him that he had never said "I love you" to his wife or his son or his daughter. In fact, he'd never said that to anyone.

"Bulma...Do you love me...?" The words sounded foreign to him, as if it wasn't his voice that just said that. He felt like the answer he wanted was not the answer he was going to get. That feeling was also foreign: the feeling of needing someone-- _her_ \--to love him.

"Of course I do." Well, that was a surprise. He didn't know what he was expecting her to say, but it certainly wasn't that. "You're more brainless than I thought if you thought that I would put up with you this long if I didn't. Is that all you were worried about?" She looked up at him, but he kept his eyes forward so that they never met hers.

"That...that day at the stadium...I...I could've..." She felt his heart rate speed up, beating desperately beneath her hand as if it were trying to escape his chest.

"But you didn't," she finished, knowing what he was going to say. "You can't blame yourself. You were being controlled."

"I let him do it, Bulma." It was getting hard to keep his voice low. "I let Babidi into my mind so that I could revert back to who I really am. This life with you and the kids...It's not me. It's not who I am." She rose her head from his shoulder and lifted her body. "Babidi showed me that no matter how hard I try, I'll always be a ruthless warrior prince who destroys everything he touches. I can't have a family. I don't deserve--" He trailed off as she put herself on top of him.

"Vegeta, shut up and listen to me." She was now sitting on his lap, her face inches from his with that demanding look that only _she_ could make. His coal black eyes were fixed on her ocean blue ones. They burned like the cores of the brightest stars, but he couldn't turn away. "You should've known what you were getting into the moment you gave me Trunks. There is no turning back now. You made a family and you are going to stick by them."

"Bulma--" he tried, but it was no use. There was no stopping her when she got like this.

"No. Listen. You have a wonderful little boy who looks up to you, a beautiful newborn who needs her father to be there for her, and a wife who loves you for _you_ , flaws and all. I know who you used to be, but that you is in the past. That's not you now."

"How do you know? How do you know that I won't just snap one day? You and the kids aren't safe around me."

"We're more safe with you than anyone else and you wanna know why I know that? Because I know _you_." She leaned her head down so that their foreheads touched. "You _love_ your children and you would do _anything_ for them. You would _never_ hurt them. And you would never hurt me." Her serious expression melted into a warm smile that made his heart flutter. "When you first came to this planet, all you wanted to do was destroy it. And now, you've saved it more times than anyone gives you credit for. If anyone deserves a family, a chance at happiness, it's you." She slid down off of him so that she was laying beside him, her head on his chest and her legs entwined with his. "I love you, Vegeta. I really do." His expression began to relax and melt, and his nerves did, too.

"How do you always know the right things to say?" he asked, his voice calm and deep. He put his arm over her abdomen, pressing her against him as his eyelids fell.

"Heh, I'm an awesome genius," she replied with a smile as she closed her eyes, too. "I know everything." And when he fell back asleep, it wasn't a nightmare that met him, but a huge endless ocean. He floated in it, feeling the waves' deep embrace, as he stared off into the clouded sky.


End file.
